University of Illinois

University of California

Paul R Selvin

John E Hearst

Ming Xiao

Pinghua Ge

Pui-Yan Kwok

Sang Hak Lee

Ting-Fung Chan

Ruobing Zhang

Paul Dennis Simonson

Mathew Gordon

Eli Rothenberg

Matthew Gordon

Water-soluble, stable fluorescent PEGylated alkanethiol-coated quantum dots are made by contacting quantum dots with PEGylated alkanethiol in a non-oxidative, water-immiscible organic reaction solvent under a non-oxidative gas, wherein the reaction solvent is in contact with an aqueous phase, at elevated temperature and time sufficient to coat the dots with the PEGylated alkanethiol, wherein resultant water-soluble, stable fluorescent PEGylated alkanethiol-coated dots enter the aqueous phase.

Small water-soluble quantum dots

Microscopy is performed by imaging individual quantum dots (QD) using two-photon (2P) microscopy of in an aqueous environment with widefield and point-scan excitations at nanometer accuracy.

Two-photon 3-D FIONA of individual quantum dots

An improved microscope stage mount with built-in fiduciary markers is used for fluorescence microscopy, and comprises: (a) an optically-transparent glass plate adapted for specimen mounting and microscope viewing and comprising a specimen mounting area; and (b) a defined and ordered, two-dimensional microscopic array of fiduciary markers, wherein the markers are polymeric pillars affixed to the plate about the specimen mounting area, wherein the markers provide a three-dimensional spatial reference for the specimen.

Simple ultra-stable stage with built-in fiduciary markers for fluorescence nanoscopy

A method of image analysis creates super-resolution images from images with high densities of fluorophores by processing a movie in which the fluorescent molecules or particles are photobleaching or blinking. The method looks for the individual photobleaching events that can be located with high resolution (nm to tens of nanometers scale). The positions of the photobleaching or blinking events are then drawn in a composite image that is at a much higher resolution than the original fluorescence movie.

Photobleaching and intermittency localization microscopy

Lanthanide chelates derived from diazacrown ethers having two ethyliminodiacetic acid side chains have increased ability to bind lanthanide ions.

Luminescent lanthanide binding chelates

A polynucleotide is barcoded using a method whereby an isolated, individual polynucleotide is immobilized on a solid phase and stretched, targets are labeled using target-specific hybridization probes, and an individual label of an unamplified probe at each of the labeled targets is optically detected. The order of the labels is determined to form a barcode representation of the polynucleotide wherein the targets and their relative positions are represented.

Polynucleotide barcoding

Improved methods of genetic haplotyping and DNA sequencing and mapping, including methods for making amplified ssDNA, methods for allele determination, and a DNA barcoding strategy based on direct imaging of individual DNA molecules and localization of multiple sequence motifs or polymorphic sites on a single DNA molecule.

Methods for determining genetic haplotypes and DNA mapping

The invention provides methods and compositions for detecting binding or unbinding of a molecule to a substrate. The molecule comprises a luminophore and the substrate comprises a semiconductor which acts as a luminescence quencher to provide distance-dependent quenching of the luminophore. Binding or unbinding of the molecule, which may be covalent or noncovalent, is detected as a decrease or increase, respectively, of the detectable luminescence of the luminophore.

Semiconductor luminescence quenchers for detecting proximal molecular binding events

The invention provides lanthanide chelates capable of intense luminescence. The celates comprise a lanthanide chelator covalently joined to a coumarin-like or quinolone-like sensitizer. Exemplary sensitizers include 2- or 4-quinolones, 2- or 4-coumarins, or derivatives thereof e.g. carbostyril 124 (7-amino-4-methyl-2-quinolone), coumarin 120 (7-amino-4-methyl-2-coumarin), coumarin 124 (7-amino-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2-coumarin), aminomethyltrimethylpsoralen, etc. The chelates form high affinity complexes with lanthanides, such as terbium or europium, through chelator groups, such as DTPA. The chelates may be coupled to a wide variety of compounds to create specific labels, probes, diagnostic and/or therapeutic reagents, etc. The chelates find particular use in resonance energy transfer between chelate-lanthanide complexes and another luminescent agent, often a fluorescent non-metal based resonance energy acceptor. The methods provide useful information about the structure, conformation, relative location and/or interactions of macromolecules.

Luminescent lanthanide chelates and methods of use

The invention provides lanthanide chelates capable of intense luminescence. The celates comprise a lanthanide chelator covalently joined to a coumarin-like or quinolone-like sensitizer. Exemplary sensitzers include 2- or 4-quinolones, 2- or 4-coumarins, or derivatives thereof e.g. carbostyril 124 (7-amino-4-methyl-2-quinolone), coumarin 120 (7-amino-4-methyl-2-coumarin), coumarin 124 (7-amino-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2-coumarin), aminomethyltrimethylpsoralen, etc. The chelates form high affinity complexes with lanthanides, such as terbium or europium, through chelator groups, such as DTPA. The chelates may be coupled to a wide variety of compounds to create specific labels, probes, diagnostic and/or therapeutic reagents, etc. The chelates find particular use in resonance energy transfer between chelate-lanthanide complexes and another luminescent agent, often a fluorescent non-metal based resonance energy acceptor. The methods provide useful information about the structure, conformation, relative location and/or interactions of macromolecules.

Growing community of inventors

Urbana, IL, United States of America

Paul R Selvin